Last Sunday was the annual toy show in Albany. I went last year, and found some pretty good stuff(you can read about it here, here and here).

It’s a small affair, but there are plenty of deals to be had. There were a few more vendors then there were last year, and about twice as many people in attendance.

Below are my action figure scores. I also purchased a handful of packs of older trading cards, but that’s for another time, and another blog.

Everything you see above, cost me a total of $16! Not a bad deal at all!

Lion-O was originally priced at $8, but I was able to get the seller down to $6. He came with his claw shield, but it looks like one of his eyes could be burnt out. The seller and I were unable to confirm this, which is why we agreed $6 would be fair.

Snout Spout, Sgt. Bananas and Robocop were purchased in a lot deal for a total of $5.

Snout Spout’s head is incredibly loose, and his legs are very loose at the hips, but I’ve wanted to add him to the collection for a while, so this one will be fine as a placeholder.

Robocop is from the Robocop and The Ultra Police line. He is missing his gun, but he does have his helmet, which is missing almost all of the time. If I can find strip caps(is that the right phrasing?), I’m sure the cap-firing action will still work.

Sgt. Bananas is in almost pristine condition, and he’s not a figure I have come across in the wild. He’s one of the more wild looking figures, and fits my collecting focus for old-school TMNT(which is secondary characters). The only variant Turtles I’d like at this point, are the cartoon Turtles and the Movie Star Turtles.

And lastly, we have the Cobra Viper from the 1990 G.I. Joe Sonic Fighters line. This was a steal at $5(there was no need to haggle here), since he is complete. Not only is he complete, but the batteries were still in the backpack, and the sounds still work! The sounds are pretty generic, but it’s still a pretty awesome feature. Had I known that the backpacks still worked, I would have bought the other Sonic Fighters he had(all were only $5, and they were all complete). This came from the same seller I got Shockwave from, and this guy has great prices, and all of his figures are complete.

Yesterday my friend Dean and I went to an auction he was alerted to a few days earlier. He was told that there would be items of interest at said auction(toys). He told me about it on Saturday, and I immediately agreed to go.

The TMNT Sewer Playset went with Dean, as that was the highlight of the whole auction for him. It’s missing 3 small pieces, which I do not think will be too much trouble to find second-hand. And the real kicker?? The playset(which looked great when it was assembled correctly, and we snapped a few things in place), which also included the Party Wagon, the G.I. Joe vehicle, the TMNT Foot skier(not sure of the exact name at the moment), as well as other odds and ends was sold to us at the final price of $25!!! Most of the other stuff in the photo below(click on it to see everything bigger) came in a huge action figure lot, and a small Game Boy lot.

We divvied up the loot, and both sides are happy. There were some things that I would have liked to have, but there was so much, that I just don’t have the room for everything I want for the collection, so I had to temporarily pass on them. My pile is to the left, and it includes the Party Wagon. Expect to see what’s in the pile in the comings weeks(lots of stuff). Some great additions, and definitely a few surprises.

I was able to snag Raph for $7.77 at my local Wal-Mart about a month ago(Wal-Mart now has them priced at$8.88) Just like the rest of the Turtles, Raph was included with a “Ninja Arsenal. He has the same 9 points of articulation as only the Turtles have, and a pretty decent range of motion. His skin tone is also the darkest of the four, just as he is in the show.

You can see that his trademark crack wasn’t forgotten, which shows that the sculptors were paying attention. This line so far, for me, has been aces. And it looks like it’s sure to get even better.

There was enough attention to detail, that we are treated to having a Raphael figure that can hold one of his sais in his trademark manner(you know what I’m talking about). I have to give Playmates an A+ for the amount of playability that the line has thus far.

The future looks promising for this line, and I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out. The show is great, and the stores I have been to lately, have had most of their stock depleted.

Post a photo of a shelf of items that displays your love for pop culture.

So, I wanted to go with one of my all time favorite franchises.

From comics, to movies, to toys, there isn’t much TMNT stuff that I don’t like. This is probably less than half of my TMNT figure collection. There’s a few other figures I need to fit on this shelf, as well as the figures from the new series.

But since I pretty much showed this in a previous post, I figures that I would post an additional photo from one of the shelves in my closet.

Everything in this trade was awesome, but I saved my favorite for last.

These were 2 needed additions to my old-school TMNT collection. My focus on the line is diverted to unique characters, with little focus on Turtle variations(there are a few exceptions). I’ve wanted to add Splinter to the collection for a while, but I always seem to find him without his robe. For me, the robe needs to be included, in orderr to warrant a purchase. This remedies that situation.

Triceraton is another figure that I’ve had at the top of my list, and he even came with his blaster. This figure was released in 1990. But the Triceraton race actually has it’s roots in the old-school TMNT comics. So this figure has a lot going for it.

Due to limited space at the moment, Splinter will probably be the only one of the 2 to be displayed(the M.U.S.C.L.E.s and Nemesis Enforcer will be on display as well).

Just like how Krang is now “Kraang”, Michaelangelo, is now “Michelangelo”. The little differences in these 2 names, is the only thing that I don’t like about the new TMNT line/show. It’s no secret that I love the new figures.

Just as he always has been, Mikey is still the fun-loving jokester of the crew. When Ninja Turtles first hit the cartoon scene back in 1988, Mikey was my favorite. This didn’t last long, as Donnie became my favorite a short time later. So I guess you could say that he would be my second favorite. I think part of the reason I originally like Mikey, was because he was the one wielding nunchucks. And a lot(and I mean a lot), of kids loved nunchucks, me included.

As is the case with the other Turtles, Mikey’s skin shade differs from that of his brothers. He is also the shortest of the four, or the “runt of the litter”, as the card back refers to him. He has the same articulation as the other Turtles(the other non-Turtle figures in this line have much more limited articulation, which is a minus for me). I think that this is probably the best articulation that a Turtle figure has had(with the exception of the NECA figures).

I’ve always hated that the nunchucks never had real chain links. I’m not saying that they have to be metal, but even if the plastic was individually linked(like the ‘chucks old-school Panthro came with)it would look that much better. But, they work, and it’s not like I didn’t know they were plastic in the first place.

He’s a great figure, and I can only hope that the Turtles catch on with the kids of today(as I’m sure they will), and we get some more awesome figures.

Where does the time go?! We’re already in September, and the cooler weather is moving in. I had my last camping trip of the summer this past weekend, and I had one of my best friends visit me the weekend before. Before I knew it, almost two weeks had gone by without a single post.

So that’s the story. But in the time I was away, I managed to have a few items come my way.

Whether good or bad, I always love to get new NES games to add to the collection. In my opinion both of these are decent games. Stinger was given to me from my friend Mike. He was at a video game store, picked up two copies, and gave one to me. The boss at the end of the first stage is a giant slice of anthropomorphic watermelon! Mystery Quest was an Ebay find, nothing too special. I had this game when I was a kid, but I don’t remember much of it. The only thing that I specifically remembered, was that your health was referred to as “vitality”. It’s a little bit of a rip-off of a mario game, but it’s different enough to be enjoyable.

Not including shipping, I paid $2.05 for this 1992 April. Not bad. Not bad. The card is a little warped, but may be able to be fixed. It’s also unpunched. As you can see, this is a 5th anniversary figure(“New for ’92!”). Any time I can get a carded, old-school TMNT figure for a great price, I won’t pass it up.

And here is the most recent, but also, most awesome find.

Ready?

Bam!

This has to be one of my favorite finds ever! And I almost didn’t see it. I was at the “Red Barn”, and happened to catch it out of the corner of my eye when I was starting to leave. I grabbed and just could not believe it. It’s just one of those toys you don’t expect to find in the wild anymore. Voltron is a long time favorite of mine, but I was much more into the show when I was a kid. This was one of the toys that I always wanted, but never got(I do have one from ’97-’98). My friend Rob got it for me, and said it was the birthday gift he forgot to give me. What a guy!

The best part? The lions are in excellent shape! As you can see on the box, this is the blue and red lion set. We’ll take a closer look at these in the near future, but here’s this for now.